Arizona death row inmates die from hepatitis C, not lethal injection

You’ve likely heard of hepatitis C, a disease intravenous drug users have contracted from using needles unsafely. But hepatitis is much more complex.
Time

Five Arizona death row inmates have died of "natural causes" since executions were put on hold in the state in 2014. Family and attorneys say the deaths were related to hepatitis C.(Photo: Nick Oza, The Arizona Republic)

PHOENIX — Since executions were put on hold by a federal judge in 2014, five Arizona death-row inmates have died of “natural causes.” All of them were related to hepatitis C infections, according to attorneys and relatives of the dead prisoners.

The medical director at the Arizona prison complex that until last year housed the majority of death row inmates recently testified that up to 80% of inmates in that complex were infected with the disease.

Official Arizona Department of Corrections statistics paint a less dire picture.

Hepatitis C is a blood-borne viral infection that mostly affects the liver, causing cirrhosis, or hardening of the liver, and cancer. It can complicate other maladies such as kidney disease and diabetes.

Once incurable, it now can be effectively treated with expensive antiviral medication. It is mostly contracted by sharing needles among drug users but also can be spread by sex, infected piercing or tattoo needles, or by sharing razors and toothbrushes.

If left untreated and it progresses to cirrhosis, it can kill a person outright, cause liver cancer and kidney failure, and hamper the immune system to a point where it cannot fight off common bacterial infections, according to Dr. Rena Fox, a San Francisco-based physician who has studied hepatitis C in prison populations.

The most recent Arizona Death Row inmate to die was Brian Dann on March 1. Dann sued the director of the Arizona Department of Corrections last year to be treated with antiviral drugs.

In his handwritten complaint, Dann wrote “Plaintiff has suffered documented irreparable damage to his liver, with corresponding, severe joint pain, debilitating fatigue and cognitive/physical impairment that curb (sic) daily function. Without prompt treatment, these symptoms will exponentially progress in an imminently premature death.”

Dann got the drug treatment, but his liver was so badly damaged that he needed a bypass operation to allow blood to flow past his liver. He died on the operating table.

The disease has become a problem nationwide. A 2016 study by faculty at Yale and Harvard universities stated that 10% of inmates in state prisons have hepatitis C. The study also stated that a 12-week course of drugs to treat the infection can cost from $43,000 to $94,500.

Infection rampant in prison population

Dr. Rodney Stewart, who works for Corizon Correctional Healthcare, the health management company that provides care in Arizona prisons, testified March 14 in a U.S. District Court hearing over Arizona prison health care.

He told the court that 2,700 of the 5,000 inmates at the department’s Eyman Complex suffered from chronic illnesses,especially hepatitis C.

Those federal guidelines include an "opt-out" provision, meaning that prisoners can voluntarily refuse testing. Then treatment depends on the level of cirrhosis.

Executions on hold in Arizona

Arizona currently has 116 people on death row, according to the Department of Corrections. The state has not executed any death row prisoners since July 2014 because of litigation and the unavailability of suitable drugs to carry them out.

The last person executed in Arizona was Joseph Wood. His execution took nearly two hours because the state was experimenting with a combination of drugs that did not work quickly and effectively. A group of inmates then filed suit in federal court and a U.S. District Court judge shut down all executions until the case was litigated.

Although the case was settled, no further executions have yet been scheduled because the department has so far not obtained either of the two drugs approved for execution in Arizona: sodium thiopental and pentobarbital.

Since then, five death row inmates have died. Information on their deaths comes from attorneys, families and medical records.

• George Lopez died Oct. 12, 2016, of liver cancer, liver and kidney failure and cirrhosis, complications of hepatitis C. Lopez was on death row for killing his infant son in Tucson, Ariz., in 1989.

• Albert Carreon died Sept. 8, 2017, of a strep infection that he could not fight off because his immune system had been compromised by hepatitis C and cirrhosis. He was in prison for killing two people in Chandler, Ariz., in 2001.

• Shawn Lynch died Nov. 4, 2017, of complications from hepatitis C. Lynch was in prison for killing a Scottsdale, Ariz., man in 2001.

• Brian Dann died March 1, 2018. Dann was sentenced to death for killing three people in Phoenix in 2001.

In November, Dann was interviewed at death row in Florence, Ariz., for a story on the moving of death row prisoners from solitary confinement to a close custody situation where they could interact with each other.

Dann provided a tour of his cell, and over the door he had pasted a sign that read, “Due to recent budget cuts, the light at the end of the tunnel has been turned off.”

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Jose Acuna-Valenzuela was convicted of killing Edgar Sigala, 24, as he and a woman were leaving an ice-cream shop near 75th Avenue and Indian School Road in Phoenix in 2011. Arizona Department of Corrections

John Allen was sentenced to death in November 2017 for the brutal 2011 murder of 10-year-old Ame Deal. Allen was one of four family members charged with disciplining the girl by forcing her to do exercise in sweltering July heat and then locking her in a 31-inch-long footlocker overnight. Maricopa County Sheriff's Office

Sammantha Allen was sentenced to death in August 2017 for the brutal 2011 murder of her 10-year-old cousin, Ame Deal. Allen was one of four family members charged with disciplining the girl by forcing her to do exercise in sweltering July heat and then locking her in a 31-inch-long footlocker overnight. Maricopa County Sheriff's Department

Frank Anderson was convicted of a 1996 triple murder in Mohave County along with Robert Poyson. The victims were 39-year-old Leta Kagen, her son, 15-year-old Robert Delahunt, and 50-year-old Roland Wear. Arizona Department of Corrections

Michael Apelt and his brother, Rudi, both from Germany, were convicted in the 1990 murder of Michael's wife, Cynthia Monkman, in the desert near Apache Junction one day after Michael took out a $400,000 policy on her life.
In May 2009, a Maricopa County Superior Court judge removed Rudi Apelt from Arizona's death row, ruling that he is mentally retarded. Arizona Department of Corrections

Shad Armstrong and his sister burglarized a home in 1996. A few years later, Armstrong learned that his sister planned to turn herself in for the burglary. Armstrong and a friend dug a grave on the friend's property and then murdered Armstrong's sister and her fiance'. Arizona Department of Corrections

Frank Jarvis Atwood had been convicted of lewd and lascivious acts and kidnapping an 8-year-old boy in California. In May 1984, he was paroled from the kidnapping sentence. Atwood came to Tucson in September 1984 in violation of his California parole. On Sept. 17, 8-year-old Vicky Lynn Hoskinson was riding her bicycle home after mailing a letter. Atwood kidnapped the girl and killed her. He left her body in the desert and fled to Texas, where he was apprehended. Vicky's body was not found until April 1985. Arizona Department of Corrections

Patrick Bearup helped beat, shoot and throw Mark Mathes off a cliff in the remote Crown King area north of Phoenix, along with Sean Gaines, Jeremy Johnson and Jessica Nelson. Mathes and Nelson were living together at the time of the killing, and Nelson suspected Mathes of stealing money from her. She asked Gaines, Bearup and Johnson for help, and the four plotted to "take care of this matter." Arizona Department of Corrections

Steve Boggs was convicted in the May 2002 murders of Beatriz Alvarado, 31, Kenneth Brown, 27, and Fausto Jimenez, 30, during a botched robbery at a Mesa Jack in the Box at Lindsay Road and Main Street. Arizona Department of Corrections

Eric Boyston, 30, was a transient on Feb. 2, 2004, when he shot and killed his grandmother, Mary Boyston, and his uncle, Alexander Boyston, then stabbed family friend Timothy Wright to death. He also shot and wounded an ex-girlfriend and his great-aunt during the rampage. Arizona Department of Corrections

Jason Bush, 36, was sentenced to die by lethal injection for the killings of Raul Junior Flores, 29, and his 9-year-old daughter, Brisenia Flores, in 2009. Prosecutors said that he and two others dressed as law-enforcement officers and forced their way into the victims' home. Arizona Department of Corrections

Alan Champagne was convicted of first- and second-degree murder in June for the killing of Philmon Tapaha and Brandi Hoffner in 2011. Champagne buried their bodies in the backyard of his mother's home, where they were found clothed, mummified and covered in lime. Arizona Department of Corrections

Investigators said Derek Chappell drowned his girlfriend's 2-year-old son at an apartment complex. Chappell walked the toddler to their apartment complex pool March 11, 2004, and held Devon Hinman Shackleford under the water as he struggled. Chappell was then said to have walked away, leaving the boy's body behind. Arizona Department of Corrections

Scott Drake Clabourne was convicted in the 1980 rape and murder of a University of Arizona student he met at a Tucson bar. He strangled the woman, then stabbed her in the heart three times. Her body was dumped in an arroyo, where it was found the next morning. Clabourne's accomplice, Larry Langston, pleaded guilty to murder and received a life sentence. Arizona Department of Corrections

Benjamin Cota was sentenced to death in 2009 for slashing a Peoria woman to death. A jury had determined that he deserved a life sentence for killing the woman's husband. Victor Martinez, 73, and Guadalupe Zavala, 40, had hired Cota to help remodel their house. In December 2003, he waited for them to return home, beat Martinez to death with a hammer, and then stabbed and slashed Zavala. He wrapped their bodies in plastic and hid them in a bedroom closet and lived in the house for a week before family members discovered the bodies. Arizona Department of Corrections

Robert Louis Cromwell was convicted in the 2001 murder and sexual assault of his girlfriend's 11-year-old daughter at a Phoenix home. The girl was found in the master bedroom, unclothed and severely injured. She had 13 stab wounds to her back, a fractured skull and broken jaw. She was pronounced dead at the hospital. Arizona Department of Corrections

Leroy Cropper, 36, who had one year left to serve on a drug conviction, admitted in May 1999 that he stabbed Perryville Corrections Officer Brent Lumley to death after the officer knocked over a picture of Cropper's mother. Arizona Department of Corrections

Brian Dann was sentenced to death in Maricopa County Superior Court, where his father was once a judge.
In October 2001, Dann, 44, was convicted of killing Shelly Parks, 33, her brother, Andrew Parks, 34, and Eddie Payan, 37, in a central Phoenix apartment on Easter 1999. Arizona Department of Corrections

David Scott Detrich was convicted in a 1989 murder in Benson. Detrich became enraged when a drug deal went bad and took the victim into the desert, where he raped and murdered her. Arizona Department of Corrections

Clarence Wayne Dixon, 52, was convicted and sentenced to death in the rape, stabbing and strangulation of 21-year-old Deana Bowdoin at her Tempe apartment in 1978.
Dixon wasn't sentenced for this crime until January 2008. He had been serving a life sentence in an Arizona state prison for a 1986 sexual-assault conviction when police found new DNA evidence that connected him to the Bowdoin case. Arizona Department of Corrections

Eugene Doerr was convicted of raping and killing a woman in 1994. He had called police to report a dead woman in his bedroom and said he did not know what had happened. The victim was found lying on the floor with several lacerations to her head. Doerr was found covered in blood. Arizona Department of Corrections

Charles David Ellison was sentenced to death in February 2004 for the 1999 burglary and murders of an elderly Kingman couple. Ellison's accomplice, Richard Finch, was sentenced to life in prison. Arizona Department of Corrections

In 2005, John Fitzgerald went to his mother's Sun City West home, stabbed and slashed her with a sword and shot her to death with a pistol as her elderly fiance looked on. Arizona Department of Corrections

Mike Gallardo, 52, received the death penalty in 2009 for the 2005 murder of Rudy Padilla, 20.
According to police, Gallardo tied the victim's hands and feet, placed a pillowcase over his head and then shot him in the head during a burglary. Arizona Dept. of Corrections

On March 16, 1990, Michael Steven Gallegos and George Anthony Smallwood were staying at Smallwood's mother's house when they decided to sexually assault Smallwood's half-sister. After finishing, Gallegos and Smallwood dumped the victim's body under a tree down the street from the Smallwood residence. Arizona Department of Corrections

Beau Greene was convicted of murder for beating a man to death with a stick after a Tucson church concert in 1995. Before trial, Greene wrote a letter bragging about kicking in the victim's skull. Arizona Department of Corrections

On March 27, 1988, Richard Greenway and a juvenile accomplice burglarized the Tucson home of Lili Champagne. Greenway shot and killed Champagne and her 17-year-old daughter, Mindy, with a .22 rifle. He then stole some property, including Champagne's Porsche. The two later abandoned the Porsche after setting it on fire. Greenway later boasted to a jail inmate that he had killed the women because they had seen his face. Arizona Department of Corrections

Aaron Gunches was sentenced to death in February 2008 for the 2002 murder of a man near Mesa. Gunches kidnapped and killed Ted Price in the desert off the Beeline Highway. Gunches pleaded guilty to the crimes. Arizona Department of Corrections

Tracy Allen Hampton was convicted of killing a Phoenix couple, Charles Findley and Tanya Ramsdell, in 2001. Tanya Ramsdell was five months pregnant at the time of the murders. Arizona Department of Corrections

Rodney Hardy, an ex-con with a successful limousine service, was convicted in the 2005 shooting death of his wife, Tiffany Lien, 21, and her lover, Don Stanciel, 32, at a Tempe apartment complex. Arizona Department of Corrections

Christopher Hargrave formed a White supremacist organization called the Imperial Royal Guard with Steven Boggs. On May 19, 2002, Hargrave and Boggs went to rob a Jack in the Box restaurant, where Hargrave was once an employee. Hargrave distracted two employees while Boggs went through the back door. Hargrave and Boggs then took the three employees into the cooler and shot them several times in the back. Arizona Department of Corrections

On April 1, 1988, well-known socialite Jeanne Tovrea was shot five times in the head as she slept in her bed in her Paradise Valley home. The investigation stalled until January 1994 when an anonymous tipster watched an "Unsolved Mysteries" TV program. Several months later, a second tip led police to James Harrod's former wife, who told them Harrod had told her he was paid $100,000 to kill Jeanne because her stepson, Ed (Hap) Tovrea, wanted her dead so he could inherit from his late father's estate. Arizona Department of Corrections

Charles Hedlund, along with his half-brother, James McKinney, was convicted of killing a 65-year-old man during one burglary and a 40-year-old woman during another burglary, both in Chandler, in 1991. Arizona Department of Corrections

Graham Saunders Henry was convicted of murder after he and an accomplice kidnapped an elderly, partially paralyzed man from his Las Vegas apartment in 1986 and killed him in the desert outside Kingman. Arizona Department of Corrections

Ruben Johnson was sentenced to death in December 2003 for the shooting death of a woman who was supposed to testify in an armed-robbery case in which Johnson had been an accomplice. Arizona Department of Corrections

Barry Jones was convicted of sexually assaulting and beating a 4-year-old girl in 1995. By the time the victim, Rachel Gray, was taken to a hospital, she was dead as the result of a ruptured intestine. Arizona Department of Corrections

Ronnie Lovelle Joseph was convicted in the 2004 shooting death of his wife's 14-year-old nephew. Joseph went to his wife's apartment, where he argued with her before fatally shooting Tommar Brown. Joseph also wounded his wife and another person. Arizona Department of Corrections

Alvie Kiles lived in Yuma with his girlfriend, Valerie Gunnell, and her two daughters, 9-month-old Lecresha and 5-year-old Shemaeah. On Feb. 9, 1989, Kiles used a bumper jack to bludgeon Valerie to death in their home. He then killed the two children because they started "screaming and hollering" as he killed their mother. Kiles bragged about the murders to an acquaintance and took him on a tour of the murder scene, during which Kiles stepped on Valerie’s head. Lecresha’s body was later found floating in a canal in Mexico, but Shemaeah’s body was never found. Arizona Department of Corrections

Chad Alan Lee was convicted of robbing, sexually assaulting and stabbing to death a pizza delivery woman and robbing and shooting to death a taxi driver in 1992. Police were able to track him down by finding his unusual order for a large Hawaiian pizza. Arizona Department of Corrections

Darrell Lee was convicted of robbing a Phoenix man, driving him to La Paz County, trying to kill him with automobile exhaust then strangling him while an accomplice hit him in the head. Arizona Department of Corrections

Scott Lehr was known as the Baby-Seat Rapist. Driving a late-model Chevrolet with a baby seat in the back, Lehr stopped and offered rides to women. Lehr drove them to remote areas of the desert, where he sexually assaulted them. Three died, their heads crushed. Seven others, from 10 to 47 years old, were left for dead or let go, bruised and bloody. Lehr went to death row for the deaths of Margaret Christorf, 40, in October 1991; Belinda Cronin, 21, in January 1992; and Michelle Morales, 19, in February 1992. Arizona Department of Corrections

Scottsdale resident Andre Leteve fatally shot his sons, Alec, 5, and Asher, 1, in March 2010 before shooting himself in the face in a botched suicide. The prosecution said Leteve committed the ultimate act of revenge against the wife who was divorcing him. Arizona Department of Corrections

Eric Mann was convicted of shooting to death two men during a 1989 drug "rip-off" in Pima County and dumping their bodies in Graham County. The bodies were found the next day, Nov. 24, 1989, but the murders remained unsolved until Mann's girlfriend confessed to state of Washington authorities that she witnessed the murders. Arizona Department of Corrections

Jahmari Manuel, who also goes by the name Warren Carl Manuel, was caught on surveillance video when he shot Phoenix pawn-shop owner Darrell Willeford in Willeford's store on Thomas Road and 35th Street on March 31, 2004. Arizona Department of Corrections

Ernesto Martinez was convicted of killing Arizona Department of Public Safety Officer Robert Martin, who stopped him for driving a stolen Monte Carlo in 1995. Martinez shot Martin four times and took his service revolver. Because of Martinez's reckless, high-speed driving while fleeing the scene, several other drivers took down the Monte Carlo's license-plate number. Martinez was overheard bragging and laughing about killing a cop, during a telephone call. Arizona Department of Corrections

Frank McCray was convicted in 2005 of the murder of Chestene "Tina" Cummins, who was beaten, raped and strangled in her north-central Phoenix apartment in 1987. The crime wasn't solved until 2000. Arizona Department of Corrections

On July 13, 2002, Leroy Dean McGill walked into an apartment in north Phoenix carrying a cup full of gasoline. McGill doused Charles Perez and Nova Banta with the gasoline and lit them on fire. Perez subsequently died from his burns. Banta was so severely burned and treating physicians had to put her in a medically-induced coma in order to save her life.
McGill bragged that he had mixed the gasoline with Styrofoam to form a gel so that it would burn hotter. Arizona Department of Corrections

James McKinney, along with his half-brother, Charles Hedlund, was convicted of killing of a 65-year-old man during one burglary and a 40-year-old woman during another burglary, both in Chandler, in 1991. Arizona Department of Corrections

Efren Medina was 18 in 1993 when he beat and stomped former Arizona Republic reporter Carle Hodge, 71, then dragged him into the street and ran over him. Another man, Ernest Aro, 19 at the time of the crime, was also found guilty in the murder and sentenced in a separate trial to life in prison. Arizona Department of Corrections

Businessman William Craig Miller was found guilty of shooting Steven Duffy, 30, and Tammy Lovell, 32, to death on Feb. 21, 2006, to prevent them from testifying against him in a Scottsdale arson case. He also fatally shot Steven's brother, Shane Duffy, 18, and Lovell's children, Jacob, 10, and Cassandra, 15, to eliminate witnesses. Arizona Department of Corrections

Julius Moore is on death row for the 1999 shooting deaths of two men and a woman in the 1800 block of East Yale Street in Phoenix. Another woman was critically injured in the shooting. Arizona Department of Corrections

Roger Murray, along with Robert Murray, was convicted of murder in a 1991 rampage in which they broke into a home north of Kingman, shot and killed the two residents, then ransacked the house. Arizona Department of Corrections

On May 23, 2001, Steven Newell attempted to rape 8-year-old Elizabeth Byrd as she walked to Cash Elementary School in southwest Phoenix. He strangled her before dumping her body in a ditch. Arizona Department of Corrections

Scott Nordstrom was convicted in the shooting deaths of Thomas Hardman and Carol Lynn Noel. The 28-year-old Hardman and 50-year-old Noel died two weeks apart in the 1996 robberies at the Moon Smoke Shop and the Tucson Firefighters Association Union Hall. Arizona Department of Corrections

Darrel Pandeli killed Holly Iler after what he claimed was an abortive sexual encounter. He slit her throat and mutilated her body. After being captured and interrogated for that murder, he confessed to killing Holly Humphreys more than a year before the Iler murder. He was tried separately for the murder of Humphreys and convicted of second-degree murder. He was sentenced to death for Iler’s murder, but the sentence was reversed. He was sentenced to death again in a new sentencing proceeding. Arizona Department of Corrections

Steven John Parker was sentenced to death in 2010 for murdering his next-door neighbors. Parker was convicted in the slaying of Wayne Smith and his wife, Faye, who were found stabbed, beaten and robbed in their Phoenix home in 2005. Arizona Department of Corrections

Christopher Payne was convicted of murder in the starvation deaths of his two children, 3-year-old Ariana Payne and 4-year-old Tyler Payne. The girl's decomposing body was found in a storage locker in February 2007. The boy's body was never found. Arizona Department of Corrections

Wayne Prince was convicted in 2000 of shooting to death his 13-year-old stepdaughter, Cassie Parker, two years earlier during an argument with the girl's mother. He was sentenced to death by a Superior Court judge who found the crime to be "especially cruel and depraved." Arizona Department of Corrections

During the early morning hours of May 25, 1989, David Ramirez, a parolee, murdered Mary Gortarez and her 15-year-old daughter, Candie Gortarez, in their Phoenix apartment. Arizona Department of Corrections

Stephen Reeves was caught on surveillance video on June 2, 2007, as he beat 18-year-old Norma Gabriella Contreras with a brick, then choked her with a stick and finally slit her throat with a box cutter. Reeves was later found covered in blood in Contreras' car. Arizona Department of Corrections

On March 15, 1992, Pete Rogovich robbed a Super Stop Food Mart and shot and killed the clerk. He later went to the Palo Verde Trailer Park where he encountered Phyllis Mancuso and shot and killed her. He entered the home of Marie Pendergast, where he shot and killed her. After leaving the Pendergast residence, he shot and killed Rebecca Carreon in the driveway of her home. He fled on foot to a local restaurant, where he took a vehicle from an employee at gunpoint. He then robbed a Circle K. He was later apprehended after a pursuit by local law-enforcement agencies. Arizona Department of Corrections

Edward James Rose, 23, was convicted of killing Phoenix police Officer George Cortez in 2007 as he tried to arrest Rose on suspicion of passing a bad check at a west Phoenix check-cashing store. Arizona Department of Corrections

Homer Roseberry was convicted for the slaying of a fellow marijuana trafficker, whose body was found in October 2000 in the brush along Arizona 93. Roseberry shot the man, allegedly to keep his share of the profits. Arizona Department of Corrections

Jasper Phillip Rushing was convicted of murder in the September 2010 death of Shannon Palmer while they shared a cell at the Arizona State Prison Complex-Lewis in Buckeye. Rushing was in prison serving a sentence for a murder conviction from Yavapai County. Palmer was serving a sentence for criminal damage. Authorities say Rushing beat Palmer and used a razor to cut his throat and inflict other injuries. Palmer died 40 minutes after the attack. Arizona Department of Corrections

John Edward Sansing was convicted of killing a church worker, Trudy Calabrese, who came to his home to deliver a food box in 1998. Sansing raped, beat and fatally stabbed the woman, while his four children were in the home. He covered her body with a pile of clothing, then left to trade Calabrese's jewelry for drugs that he and his wife consumed. Each of the four Sansing children saw Calabrese's dead body in the home. Arizona Department of Corrections

Ronald Schackart had known Charla Regan since high school and they continued to be friends at the University of Arizona. On March 8, 1984, Schackart told Regan he needed a place to stay since his parents had kicked him out of their house. He also told her he needed to talk to her about his wife filing rape charges against him. They went to a Tucson Holiday Inn where Schackart raped Charla at gunpoint, hit her in the face with the gun, strangled her to death, and stuffed a large sock into her mouth. He later reported the killing to the police and claimed he had not intended to kill Charla. Arizona Department of Corrections

Roger Mark Scott was convicted alongside Debra Jean Milke and James Styers in the 1989 murder of Milke's 4-year-old son, Christopher. Scott was with Styers when he killed the boy, and Styers agreed to give him $250 to file a Social Security claim. Arizona Department of Corrections

Todd Smith was convicted in the 1995 slayings of an elderly couple at a campsite in Coconino County. The victims let Smith in their trailer because he had wrapped a shirt around his hand to make it look like he had cut himself. Arizona Department of Corrections

Joseph Clarence Smith Jr. was convicted in the 1975 slayings of two teenage girls he had picked up while they were hitchhiking in Maricopa County. Both women died of asphyxiation after Smith forced dirt into their mouths and nostrils and taped their mouths shut. He also stabbed each girl several times. Arizona Department of Corrections

Anthony Spears was convicted of murdering a girlfriend in 1992. He stole her truck, guns and money and headed to California, where he began living with another girlfriend. Arizona Department of Corrections

Paul Speer, along with Brian Womble, conspired to kill Aden Soto. Womble reportedly shot and killed Soto, 42, and seriously injured Enriqueta Soto, 30, both of Phoenix. Police say Womble and Speer broke into the Sotos' apartment. The suspects previously had been arrested for burglarizing the Sotos' apartment, and they returned to kill the residents, believing they could avoid jail time for burglary. They shot the couple as they slept in their bed with a young child between them. Arizona Department of Corrections

Christopher John Spreitz was convicted of raping and killing a Tucson woman in the desert in 1989. Spreitz admitted raping the woman and crushing her skull with a rock because she would not stop screaming. Arizona Department of Corrections

Preston Strong was convicted of murdering six people in 2005: his best friend, best friend's girlfriend, and the girlfriend's four kids. He spent hours asphyxiating four of the victims and shot his best friend and the youngest boy. Strong was sentenced to death in May 2017. Arizona Department of Corrections

Eugene R. Tucker was convicted in September 2001 of killing a woman he'd been dating after she rejected his efforts to see her. Tucker beat and sexually assaulted the woman in her apartment before shooting her in the head. He also shot and killed two other people living in the apartment. Arizona Department of Corrections

Pete Van Winkle, 27, was caught on surveillance tape as he beat and choked fellow inmate Robert Cotton to death in May 2008 at the Fourth Avenue Jail in Phoenix. A jail detention officer then saw Van Winkle drag Cotton's body out of a cell and attempt to throw it over a second-floor railing in the jail. At the time of the murder, Van Winkle was in jail accused of trying to kill a man in February 2008. Arizona Department of Corrections

Juan Velazquez was convicted of beating to death 20-month-old Liana Sandoval, the daughter of his live-in girlfriend. Her body was found in a canal weighted down by a cement block. Arizona Department of Corrections

Theodore Washington, along with Fred Robinson, was convicted in the 1987 slaying in Yuma of the stepmother of Robinson's girlfriend in retaliation for the girlfriend leaving Robinson. Arizona Department of Corrections

Michael White and his girlfriend were convicted of killing her husband in 1987 to collect on a life-insurance policy. He shot the man with a .357 Magnum, using a potato as a silencer. Arizona Department of Corrections

Ronald Williams was convicted in the 1981 shooting death of a neighbor who was checking out a burglary at a Scottsdale home. He had previously twice been convicted of murder. Arizona Department of Corrections

Brian Womble, along with Paul Speer, conspired to kill Aden Soto. Womble reportedly shot and killed Soto, 42, and seriously injured Enriqueta Soto, 30, both of Phoenix. Police say Womble and Speer broke into the Sotos' apartment. The suspects previously had been arrested for burglarizing the Sotos' apartment, and they returned to kill the residents believing they could avoid jail time for burglary. They shot the couple as they slept in their bed with a young child between them. Arizona Department of Corrections